Jonatan Vega: “Not even Messi performed like Pedri in the beginning”

Jonatan Vega (Tenerife, 28 years old), talent recruiter from Las Palmas, is one of the discoverers of Pedri. Here he tells his story.

How did it come about and how was it the first time you saw Pedri play?

I got a rumor about Juan Carlos Torres, who was Pedri's coach at the time at the Infantil del Juventud Laguna. He had a playmaker with unusual conditions. And we went to see the footballer as a first-year cadet. We saw that there was a good talent, he was a footballer who for his age was above average. He understood the game very well. The technical-tactical conditions that he met to be that age (at that time 14 years old) were very exceptional.

And the process until he signed with Las Palmas?

During that year we decided to follow up with him. By club policy, we sign from the following year, when the boy is a little older, so that the adaptation is better. And from the second year we decided more to go for him. Both Roberto Arocha, who is the coordinator of Las Palmas, and I decided to monitor the player. He came here and evidently endorsed my idea, what I saw, that we had a talent on our hands that could reach professional football.

What happens at that moment?

What happened is that Real Madrid got involved and offered him a test. But when he was there he was a week and there was a storm in Madrid and the boy could hardly train. Also at that time the director of the quarry, Víctor Fernández, was traveling and they met in a we'll see. That's when the boy had a drop in performance but we held our ground. We told the family that we loved him yes or yes, that we believed in him. As a youth, in the honor division league in the Canary Islands, he was already the most decisive footballer for me.

On a personal basis, what do you think makes you different from other players today?

The knowledge he has of the game, how he dominates, how he understands it, and the speed of execution he has in gestures. How is outlined especially in a first touch. And the technical detail of the first control always frees you from rivals. It's an illogical career, because at her young age few examples occur to me. Maybe Raúl, Casillas. Not even Leo Messi, who was with the first team at the age of 17, performed like this in his first games.

Do you think you can continue to triumph at Barça?

I think he's doing it already. You just have to watch the latest games. He has stood out in the majority, he brings very positive things to Barcelona football, I think that in the end what he has left is to dedicate himself. To this day, at the level that he is performing, it is difficult for him not to continue having the minutes he is having, because in the end what marks you is performance.

The elite, do you think it can affect you in any way?

Well I do not know today, I understand that not. I do not notice that it has affected him. There is an aspect that, in these cases, we have to value very positively. And it is the psychological aspect of Pedri. That success does not make you fall into mistakes, that it does not destabilize you. He is 18 years old and he is mature and maintains his essence.

How do you get on being 'the discoverer' of Pedri?

Honestly, when they tell me about the discoverer of Pedri, I don't believe it as such. I understand that I was lucky to be working for an elite club and to be able to capture it. The talent is his.